Some books I seem to like a lot.

Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology is a really good book. My friend Trey Allen was given it as a text book at Biola Univeristy, I saw it read some, and realized that I needed it, especially since my school would probably never give us a systematic theology as a text book. It's a really good book though, it ends every chapter with a relevant hymn, has scripture memory passages, it even has study questions at the end to ask after group study. Excellent book, it doesn't read like a text book, it reads like a very comprehensive devotional book or something. I would recommend it to anybody, probably a very good book for couple's to read together......far better than "couple's devotionals."

Also John MacArthur's book "Think Biblically" is pretty good. It's just a book that cover's certain topics and tries to explain a Christian method of thinking about them, it's many chapters have proven to be well written. Although I haven't read all of Descartes, I couldn't help but get the impression that he may have been slightly misinterpreted by the writers of some of the book's chapters though. And one more thing, there seem to be some big leaps in logic in some sections that I noticed, I'll let the reader of the book find out though, I'd hate to point out a non-existant problem and have somebody imagine it to be there.

God is the Gospel by John Piper is awesome as well. It's about how the ultimate gift of the gospel is God himself. The goodnews is that the self-giving God reveals Himself in Jesus Christ. Piper is really good at forcing introspection by his readers.....to an almost dangerous degree, at the same time the book also forces one to ask God to desire Him.

The Institutes of the Christian Religion is written by a little known reformer named John Calvin, by that I mean of great renown as a commentator, exegete, and theologian. So far the first book of the Institutes is pretty good. Calvin does a really good job of showing how everything points to God, but that unrepentant man is too stupid and self-absorbed to notice. He does a good job of showing the necessity of divine revelation in the form of the Scriptures being preached/read for people to be saved. He makes some interesting arguements against all uses of pictures for teaching, I'm not too sure whether or not his conclusion is correct or not. It seems extremely important for me to know since I plan on being a pastor, but I'm glad Jean brought it up.

Ezra-Nehemiah- I've read these so many times lately for a project from my pastor that I'm starting to like them a whole lot. The story of a restoration of a broken people is extremely beautiful to me. That and the last portion of Isaiah make the hymn "Come O Come Emmanuel" a lot more meaningful. Our sins are bad enough, but the depths of our transgression still seems to leave us not fully knowing how much we need a savior. We should certainly labor to bring others to that same realization.

"Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes."